India, Jan. 12 -- In a setback for Shiv Sena (UBT) ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, party loyalist and 2-term MLA from party bastion in Parel Dagdu Sakpal joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Sunday. The switch came after Sakpal's daughter, Reshma, was reportedly denied a Sena-UBT ticket from Ward 203, where she wanted to contest.

Sakpal, a two-term MLA from Parel in 1999 and 2004, was a long-time party worker in Parel, the Sena's bastion for over five decades. After he was defeated in the 2009 assembly elections by MNS candidate Bala Nandgaonkar at the Shivadi (Sewree) constituency he became less active in politics and was later replaced by another party loyalist, Ajay Chaudhary, now a three-term MLA...